The Toyota Designed Only for Astronauts

This month Toyota and JAXA (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Japan’s NASA) announced the name of their recent, ongoing collaboration: The Lunar Cruiser, which will be a manned, pressurized EV that astronauts will use to cruise around on the surface of the moon.

Due to the massive amount of fuel cells this thing packs (those circles in the image below)…

…the six-wheeled vehicle is anticipated to have a range of 10,000 kilometers (over 6,000 miles); as that’s long enough to drive from NYC to LA and back, that should enable astronauts to tackle rather ambitious lunar roadtrips.

Interestingly, Toyota and JAXA view the concept less as a basic form of transportation, and more like the Conestoga wagons that led early American settlers (okay, invaders) to form far-flung communities.

“JAXA and Toyota have been discussing laterally with a variety of industries…the theme of ‘a lunar society pioneered by the manned pressurized rover.’ …The meetings focus on how the manned pressurized rover becomes the starting point of a vision of a future lunar surface-based society while discussing the challenges associated with the creation of this type of society.”

At the very least, it looks like this society won’t have to build roads.

Héctor Zamora erects curved brick wall Lattice Detour on The Met rooftop

Lattice Detour by Hector Zamora

Mexican artist Héctor Zamora has created a perforated brick wall to frame views of New York’s skyline for an installation on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Zamora‘s Lattice Detour compries a gridded brick wall that is 11 feet (3.3 metres) tall on the rooftop of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, also known at The Met.

Lattice Detour by Hector Zamora

The wall gently curves in an arc and spans approximately 100 feet (30 metres) in length.

It is built with terracotta bricks made from Mexican earth laid out a lattice-like construction with thousands of hollow squares to frame views of the city skyline and Central Park.

Lattice Detour by Hector Zamora

The perforated chunks of Lattice Detour allow air to flow through space and also creates shade and filters sunlight.

Zamora referenced the perforated screens found in Middle Eastern and African architecture to create the design. Known as celosía walls, the dividers are often made with natural materials and provide ventilation and shade naturally.

Lattice Detour by Hector Zamora

“Using modest material, Hector Zamora’s Lattice Detour interrupts and refocuses how visitors interact with this beloved space, situated atop The Met and surrounded by the Manhattan skyline, creating a meditation on movement, transparency, and interference,” said The Met director Max Hollein.

“Manifesting itself as a protective wall, curved artwork, and permeable screen, Lattice Detour is a transformative, charged, and timely intervention.”

Lattice Detour by Hector Zamora

Mexican architect Frida Escobedo has referenced celosía walls for her 2018 Serpentine Pavilion in London and for an Aesop store in Brooklyn that also uses reddish bricks from Mexico.

Zamora’s wall cuts across The Met’s open-air cafe the Iris and B Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, which reopened to the public along with the museum itself on 29 August after being closed since March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Lattice Detour by Hector Zamora

The site-specific installation is part of the museum’s annual commission for its roof space and is open from 29 August to 7 December.

In 2017 Adrián Villar Rojas created a concept with white banquet tables for the project, and the year before Cornelia Parker built a Hitchcock-influenced structure. In 2015 Pierre Huyghe installed an aquarium with ancient species.

Photography is by Anna-Marie Kellen courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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The Circle Smartwatch’s tilted body and minimalist design give it an aesthetic advantage

With an approach that strikes a fine balance between tech, sensibility, and sheer artistry, the Circle Watch is truly #smartwatchgoals. It’s beautiful to look at, has an edge-to-edge circular display, runs an incredibly clean UI, and comes with a body that looks unusual at first, and then makes a world of sense after.

The Circle Watch’s body sits on the watch-strap at an angle, leaning towards the user. Designed to make it easier to read the time without tilting your wrist too much, the Circle watch’s own inherent 15° tilt gives you a clear view of the watch’s always-on display at all times. This tilt also creates space for a button right behind the Circle’s body, allowing it to remain otherwise thin and minimalistic. The button hides from view (unlike in the Apple Watch, where the crown forms a significant part of the watch’s aesthetic), giving you a smartwatch that just feels clean and sophisticated, and focuses on the good stuff with a convenient, tilted UX and a boundless, edge-to-edge UI.

Designer: Jeong Kim (Weekend-Works)

Timber-lined walkway allows sea breeze into Australian beach house by David Boyle

Breezeway House by David Boyle

Australian studio David Boyle Architect has completed this holiday home on the country’s east coast featuring a terrace elevated among fig trees, a timber breezeway, and a garden shower for washing off sand.

Breezeway House is named after the walkway that runs along its southern side, which has timber-framed folding windows that open up to allow fresh air inside. It is located in coastal suburb Macmasters Beach north of Sydney.

Breezeway House by David Boyle

The breezeway starts at the entrance on the ground floor, with access to north-facing bedrooms, and has steps that lead up to the first floor containing an open-plan kitchen, living and dining room.

“It provides a dynamic, flexible space for the movement of air, people, and light,” said David Boyle Architect.

Breezeway House by David Boyle

“This carefully crafted timber spine warmly welcomes occupants and provides access to ground floor bedrooms that open to northern garden spaces,” the studio added.

David Boyle Architect created the home for a Sydney family on a site in Macmasters Beach with a series of unusual features – including angular borders, a semi-public driveway and a group of fig trees. Its response was to make the main body of the house a linear volume on the southern side, leaving space for the trees and gardens on the northern side.

Breezeway House by David Boyle

The studio flipped the traditional layout by placing the bedrooms on the lower level and living spaces on top, with each having access to outdoor areas. An angular volume projects from the first floor to break the linear shape and rests on angular steelwork. This forms an elevated terrace among the tree canopy on the upper level and a cover to areas underneath.

“The building form cantilevers into the figs providing an undercroft for both play and parking and a suspended treehouse balcony supported on an expressive branch-like bent steel post structure creating a symbiotic relationship between architecture and landscape,” said the studio.

Breezeway House by David Boyle

A staircase leads from this veranda to a rooftop viewing platform that offers views of the beach.

David Boyle Architect chose a rich material palette for the house including brickwork, woods, fibre cement and concrete.

Breezeway House by David Boyle

Similar materials are used for the house’s exterior and interior as part of the firm’s ambitions to create an “ambiguity” between the indoors and outdoor. For example, blackened slats of Frencham Cypress covering the majority of the exterior and paler hardwood frames, are both continued inside.

“Surface sliding doors, and high level sliding panels contribute to a spatial ambiguity between being indoors and outdoors, which is reflected in its materiality of decking, and exposed hardwood framing and fibre cement cladding,” David Boyle Architect said.

Breezeway House by David Boyle

“Materials are natural, sustainable, and robust, and assembled in a way that the hand of the maker is obvious through the raw expression of the structure and the careful craftmanship of the details that can be discovered over time,” it added.

Exposed concrete covers the ground floor, complementing wood bunk beds, a request of the owners who wanted a holiday home that could accommodate one, two or three family groups at one time. In total, the lower level has two master bedrooms, the bunk rooms for the children and “impromptu sleepovers”.

Breezeway House by David Boyle

On the southeastern corner of this level there is also a shower room with an adjoining garden. It has a door that opens onto a path from the beach, so occupants to wash-off before they enter inside.

“After walking from the beach, a semi-enclosed garden room provides a place to rest,” the studio explained.

“A shower, expressive bent steel towel rail, and timber seating is playfully integrated into the high recycled brick wall.”

Breezeway House by David Boyle

Natural split state tile covers the floor of the living area upstairs and continues onto the northwestern terrace and barbecue area. The deck of the projected volume meanwhile has a weathered wood floor. A blackened wood wall curves from this deck to adjoin a brickwork fireplace for a wood-burning stove facing a seating nook inside.

Additional details in here are wood built-ins and leather furnishings, set against the backdrop of white-painted brickwork walls and wooden ceilings.

Breezeway House by David Boyle

Breezeway House has been longlisted in the house interior project category of Dezeen Awards 2020.

Established in 2002, David Boyle Architect is based in Pretty Beach, a suburb of the Central Coast region of New South Wales. The studio’s other projects include the renovation and extension of a psychologist’s house in Sydney, which created a double-height living room, a mezzanine bedroom and a home office.

Photography is by Brett Boardman.


Project credits:

Architect: David Boyle Architect
Builder: Paterson Builders
Engineer: SDA Structures
Landscape: Pangkarra Garden Design

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These dinosaur-inspired electric toothbrushes make brushing teeth a fun activity for kids!

Isn’t it always so difficult to get little children to do basic necessary stuff? Like getting them to eat food or brush their teeth? Adding a fun element to it always gets them going. And for ages, the mighty spoon has always been the airplane in the stories but what about the toothbrush? Where’s the fun in that? In fact where is the fun in toothbrushes for adults too?

Well, get ready to begin your day on a joyful note with this Brachiosaurus inspired ‘dinos’ collection of electric toothbrushes. A perfect complement to the spoon-airplane dynamic, this dino-toothbrush will instantly make your kid want to start brushing their teeth. The design itself is very friendly and attractive, taking it away from the rather bulky looking toothbrushes we see around. The smooth curves and slender profile mimicking the long-necked Brachiosaurus immediately creates within us an emotional connection with a very personal object that we use every day. And with those color options, everyone in the family can now have their own pet dinosaur.

The designers have also done a brilliant job of blending the electric components within the body, keeping the overall natural form intact. The lower half of the animal acts as a charging dock and this dino’s got a long tail too, in the form of the power cable. And much like Ototo’s Nessie, this guy can stand on its own legs, no need to hang these cute little dinos on the wall. My only ask is if the designers could make a smaller version for the kids so that we can have a little dino family chilling at our homes!

Designers: Byoung-ki Hwang, Jiho Hong, and Suin Lim

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Crack Magazine’s “Three Minutes” Program for Emerging Directors

Bristol-based Crack Magazine just announced a new program (or “incubator scheme”) called Three Minutes, providing opportunity and funding for five young, emerging directors to make music videos. Run by Crack, the initiative received financing from the England European Regional Development Fund, as well as support from Shure, Burberry, and Film London’s BFI network. Unsigned directors under 26 years old may answer the open call with a pitch for the video along with a “personal statement and portfolio of two to three previous artistic works.” Those selected “will be paid London Living Wage for the pitching and production process and each video they’re working towards will have receive a minimum budget of £12,000.” Find out more at It’s Nice That.

Image courtesy of Crack Magazine

Nina Chanel Abney’s First AR Artwork, “Imaginary Friend”

Created with voice, script and music assistance from Chris Chalk, Jeanette E Toomer (Jet) and El Tsid and available on the Acute Art app, Nina Chanel Abney’s latest artwork is an AR companion known as “Imaginary Friend.” Unveiled 28 August, the piece is Abney’s first-ever augmented reality work and was made to be a kind of talisman. As the New York-based artist tells artnet, “I’m offering it to anyone who’s suffering right now. I’m offering it those who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic. I’m offering it to those who have lost their loved ones due to the pandemic. I’m offering it to the families and friends of people murdered by police and hateful individuals. I’m offering it to the protestors risking their lives to be on the streets right now in support of Black life. I’m offering it to the Earth, which is obviously in need of great healing right now.” Users simply download the Acute Art app, and place “Imaginary Friend” on the floor. With sparkling chimes and jazz playing in the background, the character offers up stories, blessings and advice. Abney further explains, “This new project is a departure from my usual practice, and reflects this wild new locked-down world we live in. But it’s also a continuation of the same, both in terms of how I use caricature, ambivalence, and absurdity to process grief, and in terms of this crisis being an amplification of the traumas that people have been experiencing in day-to-day life and on screens for decades.” Read more of the interview with Naomi Rea at artnet.

Image courtesy of Nina Chanel Abney and Acute Art

Protoje feat. Popcaan: Like Royalty

Grammy-nominated reggae singer-songwriter Protoje (aka Oje Ken Ollivierre) taps fellow Jamaican recording artist Popcaan for “Like Royalty” from his recently released album. “The song is about letting my people know that, as long as I’m healthy and strong, they have nothing to worry about,” Protoje said in a statement accompanying the track. Popcaan provides contrasting vocals, but the duo works seamlessly together on the song, which appears on In Search of Lost Time—named for the Marcel Proust novel.

Biking Home, a Continent Away

Quarantine hasn’t been easy for anyone, especially new parents unable to visit family, access childcare, or even experience an occasional change of scenery. For new parents who are also immigrants, the social isolation can be overwhelming. When Nigerian engineer Izu Okongwu’s wife gave birth to their second child in 2015 in Kitchener, Ontario, an ocean away from their village, the question of how to stay active and connected to home became a big concern—one that many more people are experiencing now.

“She felt like she needed an activity to keep her on her feet,” Okongwu said of his wife, a nurse at a nearby hospital. Out of nostalgia for a childhood spent cycling through the countryside, Okongwu’s wife purchased a bike, but without family nearby to watch the children when maternity leave ended, so did her adventures; the bike ended up in the garage, parked and forgotten. This month, Okongwu launched Blync, the world’s first VR-enabled bike controller, enabling cyclists to “ride” through beautiful terrain from the comfort of home using a VR device or computer. He’s hoping the project will not only get his wife back on two wheels but also help millions of others in isolation, or far from home, to travel through challenging and exciting landscapes in VR.   

Okongwu has always had an entrepreneurial streak and a curiosity for tinkering with various hardware pieces, pursuing an electronic engineering degree and later a graduate degree in software systems from UBC Vancouver, where he was exposed to a new world of software innovations. A chance encounter in Disney World in 2017 provided an additional source of inspiration. “I’d heard of VR earlier on but had never thought much of it until I went on the Avatar ride,” he explained, referring to the interactive, movie-themed VR exploration of imaginary terrains. “After I got an opportunity to experience it, I understood how immersive VR can truly be.” He joked that the ride got him thinking of all the ways he could manipulate reality through technology, wondering if he could, specifically, “trick my wife into biking indoors with a VR device that allowed her to enjoy it as much as biking outdoors.” 

 

Okongwu purchased a simple, mobile VR device to experiment with, later working with Oculus Rift and schooling himself on the uses of Arduino and the software program Unity, even creating his own test games. Confident in his ability to fuse the software with an actual biking system he, along with a team of engineers and designers, began developing Blync—the prototype resembling a rudimentary circuit project. “I attached plastic gears on the handlebar stem, which turns another gear attached to a variable resistor,” he explains. “I used an InfraRed sensor for the back wheel, and had to put white masking tape on it.” When the wheel spun, the InfraRed would detect when the masking tape passed by, calculating speed. These two sensors were then sent to a breadboard circuit with an Arduino microcontroller to process the data. “Later on in my development, while researching other ways of easily getting the handlebar signal, I had to connect to an optical mouse and use the motion of the mouse attached to the wheel to detect the direction of the handlebar.” These early touches helped create the current, compact system made up of a path sensor designed to support any bike’s wheel size, a speed sensor, and access to the app with all the environments needed for biking. Blync also contains a mobile companion app.

While other virtual bikes can control your path through the digital world, Blync‘s path sensor lets you turn and steer wherever you want, do stunts, go off-road, or even explore a new region. It also records your fitness activities, including calories burned, average riding power, and speed, enabling riders to toggle between first and third-person modes, minimizing or eliminating the dizziness that can accompany VR, and permitting users to ride via their computer screen or laptop. There are even plans to create a platform where virtual riders can select an environment to bike in, with an environment library that will evolve as users design and upload their own settings.

For this first generation of Blync, all a rider needs to do is place the bike’s front wheel on the path sensor, and strap the speed sensor on the back wheel’s hub. Most activities will be done inside the VR app, which is designed so that it doesn’t require any other controller or device to begin riding. Once in the app, you can select your avatar and virtual bike, whether you’re cycling alone or with a loved one, and open up the menu inside the VR app, using your head as the pointer to select your preferred location. Several games and in-house-designed environments are also provided, with the added option of joining or creating a private event.

When you’re not biking with Blync, a mobile companion app permits you to view the statistics of your bike session (calories, speed, power), manage events, interact with friends, or view upcoming environments.

 

With the pandemic significantly limiting our exercise options, and biking soaring in popularity, Okongwu is hoping to get even more of us cycling—no matter the season or state of the world. 

Blync is live on Kickstarter through September 10, 2020.

— Laura Feinstein, Design & Technology Editor/Outreach Lead, Kickstarter.

The future of pedicures is at-home, with this solar-powered foot exfoliator

I’d say that selling 70,000 units of a product is a pretty good indication of success and of a design that really doesn’t need much changing, but the guys behind the game-changing PediCurve felt that their hand-held electric foot-exfoliator could be made slightly better. Now built to run on solar power (so that you don’t have to worry about electricity, batteries, or anything energy-related), the PediCurve Solar gives you a gentle-yet-effective, healthy, and hygienic pedicure, powered entirely by renewable energy.

The PediCurve Solar’s waterproof design makes it the most ideal addition to your shower routine. Designed to work on wet skin, the PediCurve’s patented PediGlass discs gently remove any dead skin cells, revealing fresh, glowing skin underneath. Its light exfoliation action emulates the effect of getting a pedicure at the salon, but at home. The Danish-designed device is just a smidge larger than most hand-held scrubbers, and comes outfitted with an internal battery, solar-panels, and interchangeable glass discs made in the Czech Republic from Bohemian Glass, known to be gentle and healthy on the skin (each glass disc additionally comes with a one-year warranty). To ensure your skin remains hydrated after each exfoliation session, the guys behind the PediCurve even developed an Intensive Foot Therapy Crème that keeps your fresh skin moisturized and soft for longer.

Solar panels on the base of the PediCurve Solar help it recharge using natural light. This tiny, yet significant upgrade allows the PediCurve to run on sustainable energy and even helps cut electricity costs. The contours of the PediCurve Solar’s design make it easy to hold in the shower (even with wet hands), and a nifty base allows you to keep the PediCurve on its back as it charges using light from the sun or even lights around the house. Its absence of cables, plugs, and paraphernalia make the PediCurve Solar pretty portable, allowing you to slip it right into your luggage while traveling, giving you a salon-like pedicure experience wherever you go. Cucumber water and Korean magazines sold separately!

Designer: The Curve

Click Here to Buy Now: $70 $89 (23% off). Hurry, only 29/125 left and free shipping to US/CA.

PediCurve Solar – Upgrade Your At-home Pedicure

The PediCurve Solar is a solar-powered electrical pedicure device that removes hard skin and calluses from your feet using the patented PediGlass Discs.

Designed to be a sustainable, eco-friendly solution for at-home pedicures, the PediCurve Solar features solar-powered charging, which means no batteries or wires. Place the solar panels face up either in a sunlit room or under electric light until it’s fully charged.

Patented PediGlass Discs

Their patented PediGlass Discs are made in the Czech Republic from Bohemian Glass. They’re easy to use and healthy for your skin. No rollers or harsh scrubbing devices needed.

Use the rough PediGlass Disc to remove hard skin and calluses from your feet without uncomfortable scrubbing or added heat and friction. Follow with the smooth PediGlass Disc to leave your skin feeling and looking fresh.

Easy to use, slowly move PediCurve Solar across the rough areas of your feet in the tub or shower.

Danish Design

Their beautifully crafted Danish design is sleek, easy to use, and comfortable to work with. PediCurve Solar also easily travels with you wherever, whenever.

Founder & Inventor

Roberto Machuca tells us why he developed the PediCurve Solar.

Click Here to Buy Now: $70 $89 (23% off). Hurry, only 29/125 left and free shipping to US/CA.